A GUIDEBOOK TO PASOH edited by S.S. Lee

Published by Forest Research Institute Malaysia

In every country, there are some areas which are nature's own. Fortunately for us in Malaysia, there are many spots like the above but not many are documented well. This is an exception. Pasoh is one of Paradise's last holdouts.





SOMEWHERE about eight kilometres from Simpang Pertang in Negri Sembilan
lies one of the State's greatest undiscovered secrets (up till now). It is
the Pasoh Forest Reserve.
If you are driving from Kuala Lumpur, it will take you about two and a
half hours to get there. Enjoy the scenery. The Pasoh Forest Reserve is
2,450 hectares. It is surrounded on three sides by oil palm plantations.
Six hundred hectares of its core area is in pristine condition. The rest
of the surrounding buffer zone is regenerating lowland forest.
Since 1977, the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM) has been
managing the reserve. Previously, it was under University of Malaya. For
25 years, Pasoh has been a field research station of FRIM.
Understandably, few people know about this field station. Thus, the
forest is immensely rich in terms of tree species.
There is no big game at Pasoh, such as tapirs and tigers. However, you
may find elephants roaming around. There is also a wide variety of small
mammals, primates and birds.
It is a haven for bird watchers. Birds that are not found in other
reserves have found a home in Pasoh. Malaysian scientists, as well as
scientists from overseas, are using Pasoh to conduct field studies. It is
also an education centre for school children and university students.
This guidebook is a treasure trove of research data which will be a
bonus to any student interested in Malaysian flora and fauna. Coloured
pictures of the various types of vegetation and plants leave little to the
reader's imagination as to what kind of vegetation grows in your garden or
those trees which you often pass by along the highway.
The section on vegetation and plants is particularly useful because it
has pictures identifying the non-edible and edible fruits in the forest.
So next time, you are stuck in the forest and are feeling the hunger
pangs, a bit of knowledge provided by this guidebook may just save your
life.
Other bits of information are about herbs and shrubs, climbers and
stranglers. These are little cousins of trees which either climb the tree
trunks or cling on to the upper branches of trees for survival and
support.
The wonderful part about this guidebook is the detailed and sharp colour
pictures of the various types of leaves, fronds and fruits that abound in
the reserve. The discovery that my aunt's house has a stag-horn fern
actually growing on one of the trees in her garden was most rewarding.
Most of the time, the uninitiated would not be able to identify the
various types of jungle-like plants that one sometimes sees in a
neighbour's garden or backyard.
This guidebook is a compilation of the writings by various scientists
who have done much research in the Pasoh forest reserve. There are five
chapters which range from background and history to insects and mushrooms.
The present edition has been updated and revised from its previous
publication in 1980 entitled A Walk Through Pasoh Forest.
The chapter on birds and mammals should be a source of delight for
anybody even remotely interested in those little critters that one
sometimes sees scurrying around one's neighbourhood.
For example, it has come to my knowledge through this guidebook that the
"squirrel" which has been using my own garden as its playground in the
mornings is actually a common tree shrew.
The chapter on mushrooms is also of great importance because it clearly
identifies the various types of edible and poisonous mushrooms. Mushrooms
come under the fungi category. Even though there are 69,000 known species
of fungi, the rough estimate of fungi is about 1.5 million.
So be careful of what type of mushrooms you pick from the forest or
garden. Better still, stick to the ones that are sold in the supermarket.
This guidebook lists down the various species of mushrooms that thrive in
Pasoh. Accompanied by pictures, mushrooms have taken on a new meaning to
the man-in-the-street.
Personally, I am surprised books like this are not made readily
available in school and public libraries. This book in particular is very
readable and a fantastic source of information for everybody, young and
old.